Team Fortress 2 now free-to-play forever

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Valve has decided to introduce the free-to-play model for its very popular team-based first-person shooter Team Fortress 2.

As of now, anyone with a PC or Mac can load up Steam, download the game, and start playing completely free. The game is exactly the same in terms of gameplay than the version you pay for and will continue to receive all updates and DLC, however, Valve is differentiating a free account from a premium account.

You already have a premium account if you spent money buying the game before today, purchased the retail copy, or bought something from the store in-game. It’s also possible to convert your free account to premium. All you have to do is purchase something in-game at the Mann Co. store.

The differences between the free and premium accounts is nicely summed up in the table below:

Valve isn’t forgetting about all those players who already purchased the game, and as well as the extra slots, items, crafting blueprints, trading, and gifts, there’s a couple of unique extras for you too. Automatically you get a Proof of Purchase hat to wear, but if you help out someone with a free account a lot (known as Coaching), Valve determines you were their most helpful friend, if they upgrade to premium you get a free wearable item.

The introduction of free-to-play came with the latest update to the game which included a new Payload map, lots of new goodies, a redesign of the Crafting interface, improvements to training, and a number of gameplay bug fixes.

In an interview with Develop, Valve’s Robin Walker explained that free-to-play has been on the cards for a while. The introduction of the in-game store meant the game could generate revenue without players having to buy it in the first place. Clearly microtransaction sales so far have shown Valve this is a workable model going forward.

Walker also confirmed that there’s no plan to introduce adverts and that really this is just a way to get more people trying the game to see if they like it in the hope some will stick around and become regular players. It’s also going to get more gamers installing Steam and trying out the Steam Wallet.